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how long should a dog hold its urine?

I have a 5 1/2 month old mix female dog. She can not hold her urine more than 1 1/2 hours during the day. If I dont watch that clock and make sure she goes out, she will pee on the floor. Sometimes she releases a little here and there and when I realize I take her out and she pee alot. She can however hold it overnight from 10pm to 6am. During the day however she does sometimes pee in the crate. yesterday she had 5 accidents in the house...2 in crate, 3 out. She does not have an infection I have had her tested numerous times. Is there any medical reason causing this? Is it possible she just does not have a fully developed bladder. I love her to death but Im tired of going outside everyone 1-2 hours. I expect it in the beginning of training, however I would think things would be getting better at this point. We got her when she was 9 weeks and she was spayed at 8 weeks. Please someone respond. Thanks

Re: how long should a dog hold its urine?

Originally Posted by mollyshuman

I have a 5 1/2 month old mix female dog. She can not hold her urine more than 1 1/2 hours during the day. If I dont watch that clock and make sure she goes out, she will pee on the floor. Sometimes she releases a little here and there and when I realize I take her out and she pee alot. She can however hold it overnight from 10pm to 6am. During the day however she does sometimes pee in the crate. yesterday she had 5 accidents in the house...2 in crate, 3 out. She does not have an infection I have had her tested numerous times. Is there any medical reason causing this? Is it possible she just does not have a fully developed bladder. I love her to death but Im tired of going outside everyone 1-2 hours. I expect it in the beginning of training, however I would think things would be getting better at this point. We got her when she was 9 weeks and she was spayed at 8 weeks. Please someone respond. Thanks

All part of owning a puppy. Take her out every 30 minutes during the day. Slowly increase that to 45 minutes, then 1 hour. If you go 1 week without an accident at 30 minutes, increase to 45 mins. If you go a week again without accidents, then increase it again.

Holding it from 10pm to 6am is a impressive feat for a 5 1/2 month old puppy. But they go potty much more frequently during the day when they are awake, than at night when they sleep.

Re: how long should a dog hold its urine?

The general rule of thumb and I reiterate GENERAL is that a dog SHOULD be able to hold it an hour for every month of age. Of course for smaller dogs this is going to be HIGHLY variable amongst different dogs. At this point if you have a good potty timing regimin and she is still havng accidents it might be time to consider having her checked for a UTI or possible kidney issues. Also if she is spayed she might be expereincing a bit if spay incontinence, or if she is un-spayed she mnight be getting close to her first heat and having a larger than usual amount of discharge (that she can detect) and it is giving her that urge to piddle more often. First rule out medical then look to behavioral reasons. Lastly monitor her water intake. Actually measure the amount of water you are putting in her bowl and how much she is consuming so that if it does come to going to the vet you have precise figures for him and not just guesstimates. You can also try taking up her water about an hour before you retire for the evening to help her learn some bladder control. If she hs some zoomies or a play session you can give her ice cubes to quell the thirst with out her having to take in a lot of water.

Re: how long should a dog hold its urine?

Yes this is very normal. Yoshi will hold night when there's no activity or water and 7-8 hours during the day when we work, but there's no activity/water. When we are home he asks to go every every 2 hours. He has water and it running around.

Re: how long should a dog hold its urine?

I wouldn't be concerned about leaving water out for her to drink. You can cause so many health problems by with holding water, and it wouldn't help her learn at all. It would just teach her to drink LOTS of water whenever it -is- going to be available.. and that can cause her a lot of problems too. It will just take a little time for her to learn to hold it.. Zoey didn't until she was almost 8 months old, Maggie on the other hand was done having accidents by 3 1/2 months. Rbark gave you some great advice. It will help her learn to hold it if she knows you will be taking her out every hour, hour and a half, 2 hours.. slowly increasing that time.

Re: how long should a dog hold its urine?

I'm guessing you've got a small breed dog?

Odo, my eight month old maltese/poodle mix, is the same way. I have to just take him out because most of the time he doesn't give any indication he needs to go, and if we wait longer than about 90 minutes he just pees by the door. He also pees in his crate, but that's getting less and less frequent. He hasn't done it in two weeks now.

Kira, my Boston Terrier, on the other hand will whine at the door when she has to go, but even she only holds it about 2 hours unless she's in her crate.

I'm really hoping they hold it a little longer as they get older because it kind of sucks having to go outside with them every 90 minutes and I don't have a fenced yard yet, so there's no option to just let them out. If that's what I have to do, though, that's what I'll do.

Oh, and I second the giving them scheduled drinks rather than leaving the water out. I don't free feed or leave water out. If I do, then we're going out every 15-20 minutes :P

My pitbull was 3 months and potty trained when i brought her home and she would hold it until i took her out. I think i was very lucky she has always been great and will never go in the house. But i have seen a few of my dogs start holding it at around 4 months until i take them out.